


Orange

by Stahvie



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-06
Updated: 2018-11-06
Packaged: 2019-08-19 18:38:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16539986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stahvie/pseuds/Stahvie
Summary: Based on a req where reader is an artist





	Orange

If there was one thing being an artist had led you to appreciate, it was colour. Most city dwellers would say city life was dull, basically just concrete and stone, they made it seem bleak. You saw beyond that to the pops of colour that made the city beautiful. The weathered band posters plastered on walls. The pride flag that hung in the window of your neighbours apartment across the road. The tiny weed patch that lived in the crack of the sidewalk outside your building that just wouldn’t die no matter how many times the woman next door drowned it in weedkiller.

Colour was life for you but you wanted to prove it wasn’t the only thing that made the city beautiful. You set yourself a challenge; you’d only work in black and white. If you could make the city look good in monochrome, maybe that would help people see how amazingly colourful it really was.

So far, a few days into this challenge, your results… well, they weren’t what you were hoping. If you were brutally honest with yourself, everything you’d produced so far was a little boring.

Today would be different. You dragged yourself out of bed before the sun had a chance to wake up for the day. Once you’d gathered your preferred materials, you set off for the park. It almost felt a little like cheating to use the park since it was already beautiful, but with the added challenge of trying to capture the sunrise, an event famous for being colourful, you felt like it evened it out a little.

You plonked yourself down on the grass just inside the entrance of the park, and tucked into the bagel and hot beverage you’d bought from the 24/7 donut shop on an adjoining street. Their bagels were amazing and their donuts were even better. Whenever you were in the area it was usually a struggle to convince yourself you weren’t actually hungry, but this was breakfast, so that was different!

The sky was starting to get lighter. Sunrise was close. You retrieved everything you needed and waited. The one thing you hadn’t anticipated however, was the weather. Clouds that had hidden behind the tall buildings in the distance began to crawl across the sky. You tried to capture something, anything, before the sky was almost completely hidden, but the result wasn’t anything you’d want to show to anyone. How disappointing.

It probably wasn’t your brightest moment. Greyscale sunrise, what were you thinking? Still, at least the clouds didn’t look like they were going to rain, and the sky above you was still pretty clear.

Not far from where you sat, the air seemed to spark. You’d never witness the air spontaneously bursting into flames and didn’t really know how to react, you just sat there stunned. The orange spark quickly took shape. An oval. From it a man appeared.

“Morning.” The stout man said as he walked past you.

“…Morning…” You answered back.

This wasn’t a normal thing… right? Your eyes left the stranger as he exited the park and focused on the sparkly thing. A portal?

“Wong!” Shouted the portal.

Another man appeared. Silver accented his dark hair, and his facial hair was meticulously groomed. He was older than you, but that wasn’t a deal breaker; the man was handsome.

“Wong! Sprinkles! Pink ones! Wong?” Your eyes were stuck on this new stranger, but from the look on his face, it appeared like the first man had heard him. Now just realising he had an audience, he turned to you. “Hey.”

His eyes crinkled as he smiled at you. Ugh, he was attractive. You managed a small ‘Hey’ and returned his smile with a soft one of your own. The following silence lingered for a little too long.

“They do good donuts down there. Have you…?” He began to ask. You raised the bag your bagel came in to answer him. “Ah, you have.”

Realising a substantial conversation wasn’t about to occur, he nodded a silent goodbye to you and disappeared back into the portal. Once you’d mentally returned to your body, you noticed just how beautiful the orange sparks were. Now, more than ever, you regretted the decision to only work in black and white.

You packed your things up and rushed back home. You were changing the challenge. Monochrome pictures with pops of orange. Rushing back to the park with the orange pigment now safely in your bag you found you were too late. The portal was gone.

For the next few days you sketched down any out of place orange things you could find. None of them had the same kind of oomph. You were just going to have to track him down.

“They call him Doctor Strange.” “How can you not know who that is?” “Have you been living under a rock?” and other similar things poured from the mouths of your friends, all with incredulous looks on their faces. Honestly, you’d lost track of all those kinds of people, the ones that saved the world. You were thankful of course, but there were a lot, and more just seemed to pop up every week.

You had a lead now. It wasn’t long before you were stalking the man who could generate orange sparkles from his hands. Never getting too close, you captured the gorgeous glow Strange was able to produce. Like any big city, there were plenty of weirdos around, you felt lucky that artists ranked low on the weird scale. Most people ignored you as you snuck around trying to capture his orange with your own, however, you lost track of Strange a few times due to the occasional nosy person trying to look over your shoulder at your art.

While tailing him you’d discovered that Strange or Wong would sometimes visit the donut shop in the morning. Lately it had been Wong, but that didn’t matter too much. What was really important was recreating the magic they produced. You were really getting the hang of the intricate details and were finally happy with the way you could now capture the glow.

Once again, beating them to the park, you got your own donut to tide you over until the sparks started. You sat a fair distance away from the area that their portal opened, you didn’t want to attract attention to yourself.

Right on schedule the portal appeared. Strange emerged. You were surprised but you assumed Wong had gone too many times in a row, so it was Strange’s turn. He didn’t seem to notice you. That’s fine, you didn’t want to embarrass yourself with this crush you were having. Wait, no, not crush. Admiration. You just appreciated everything he did, it had nothing to do with how he looked. Your cheeks burned, calling you out in your lie.

You got to work on your first picture of the day. It was slightly foggy this morning making the portal eerily beautiful. Strange’s magic was an artform of its own. You wished you knew how it worked.

Strange was on his way back so you didn’t have much time. The problem was, when he was in view, it was a lot harder to concentrate. You probably would have had a lot more finished pieces if he had just been a tad less attractive.

Flicking your eyes back towards Strange just in time to see him wrestle awkwardly with the cardboard cupholder from the donut shop. It looked as though he was trying to free his drink to take a sip, instead it escaped his grasp and fell to the ground.

Strange stood in place. He stared at the unfortunate puddle he’d created. What a terrible way to start the day. He stretched his hand out in its direction and produced a green light.

What.

In.

The.

Hell…?!

“Green?!” You shouted. “Green? Are you serious right now?!”

Strange had never given the slightest hint that he could produce green magic in all the time you’d stalked him. If you’d known, you would have brought green with you! How could he drop this bomb on you?

“Seriously? Green?” You got up, collecting your things hastily, and marched over to him. “I didn’t know I had to bring green along! All I have is this orange. All this time and now… Green?!”

Strange wasn’t ready for confrontation, and neither were you to be fair, but you’d started it and now you were committed. He stared at you, confusion on his face, outrage on yours. For a moment the two of you stood there in silence not really knowing what to do next, you in his personal space, him leaning away slightly. Thankfully, Strange reacted first.

“You’re the one that’s been following me.” He said taking your half-drawn artwork and replacing it with his goods from the donut shop. “This is really good. You’re very good.”

“Thanks.” You said after some hesitation.

Strange returned your picture to you and took back his food. He turned back to the puddle. Green runes spread up his forearm and in no time at all, the drink was back to its original state in his hand.

“You didn’t see that.” Strange smiled at you and made his way back to the portal. “C’mon, I’ll show you more.”


End file.
